Strollerderby : day care

Where Every Day Is Take Your Child to Work Day

KeriF — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:05:00 GMT

I can't decide if this is pure genius or a complete rip-off...

A San Francisco company is offering work-at-home parents a place to work with childcare built right in. Cubes and Crayons offers workers office space with onsite childcare. There's everything you need for the professional office: conference rooms, Wi-Fi, photo copier, even a kitchen where you can get all the water cooler chatter you miss working from home. Meanwhile, your kids are happily occupied in a swank childcare center, complete with tricycles, a slide, a play kitchen, and stage, and cared for by an attentive staff (ratio is one staff member per three children). Sounds perfect, right?

But you pay for perfection: drop-in rates are $16/hour plus a yearly membership fee that starts at $435. That includes the workspace and child care.

There's another place to go for free Internet, printing capabilities, and a kitchen. It's called your home. And if you can find a reliable sitter in your neighborhood, it may cost far less to have someone watch your kid in your own home. Especially if you have more than one kid.

It's true that working at home can be a lonely, solitary existence. But most of the people I know who work from home don't make a ton of money. For us, Cubes and Crayons is a luxury we can't afford.

But for some, it might be just the ticket. Especially on an as-needed basis, when the sitter calls out sick or you have a last-minute meeting to get to; you can leave the kids behind if you have business elsewhere.

Would you use this service if it was in your neighborhood?

Baby Dies After Being Left In Day Care Van

Brett Singer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:30:00 GMT

This is just awful.

A 4-month-old child died on Thursday after being left in a van for more than five hours. The driver of the van has been charged with a felony and the day care center, Bumble Bee Learning Center, has been shut down pending an investigation. The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel says that the driver "has no record with Milwaukee police but has two arrest warrants with the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department for paternity." To me that should disqualify him from working with children, but I guess not.

Even more horrible is the fact that this is the third time a child in Milwaukee County as a result of being left unattended in a day care van.

Alphabet Street Learning Center, owned by the same company, was also shut down. That's where an employee was accused of breaking two kids' arms.

Stories like these remind us of how much trust we place in the people who take care of our children when we're not around. It's bad enough that something like this can happen once. But three children dying, and others injured? How can these centers still be open?

Source/Image: Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

Family Awarded Millions For Circumcision Mistake

Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

It seems self-evident that kids with poor childcare relationships or parents who frequently fight are more stressed than other kids. But now two new studies have established this common sense theory from a biological standpoint, by monitoring the levels of cortisol (the human stress hormone) in preschoolers and 6-year-olds. As parents across the country struggle to afford high quality childcare and to maintain a stable home environment, these studies are unfortunately quite applicable to these trying economic times.

In most people, cortisol levels decrease throughout the day. But for many children in full-time daycare, the stress hormone increases as the day progresses. Researchers found that class size clearly affected children’s moods, with preschoolers in classes of 10 or fewer children producing less cortisol than those in classrooms with closer to 20 other kids.

Children with poor relationships with their daycare providers became more stressed after one-on-one interactions with the teacher, while clingier kids had higher overall cortisol increases throughout the day.

Similarly, a study of 6-year-olds with bickering parents found that those who were very involved in and distressed about the fights produced more cortisol than other 6-year-olds. Since high levels of cortisol have been linked to health and psychological problems, this finding offers a biological understanding of why kids who get very upset by their parents’ arguments are more likely to have psychological problems later. (Whether higher levels of cortisol are a cause or an effect of psychological disorders is not clear.)

The study’s authors hope that understanding the biological basis of stress in young children will change the way kids in these common problematic situations are treated. For instance, monitoring kids’ levels of cortisol could help indicate whether a given intervention is working to relieve stress or not.

Day Care Enrollments Plummet as Families Struggle to Pay the Bills

Is Cutting Your Sitter's Pay the Best Way to Save Money?

Photo: pregnancy-depression-help.com

Day Care Enrollments Plummet as Families Struggle to Pay the Bills

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:13:00 GMT

New Horizons daycare center just outside of Chicago has seen its enrollment cut by 50 percent in the last three months. And a San Gabriel, California daycare saw its enrollment go from 51 kids last year to 15 this year.

As the economy goes from scary to terrifying, parents around the country are being forced to cut back on childcare or pull their kids out of daycare altogether, relying instead on extended family or drastic changes to their own work lives.

"It is not about people making choices to drive a second car," said Diane Stout, who is the executive director of New Horizons. "For many low income people it is making a choice for food." And, with yearly day care costs averaging between $3,380 and $10,787 for childcare for one preschooler, even middle income families are being faced with the need to cut back on childcare.

Providers say they are seeing increased disciplinary problems amongst kids who are stressed by their families’ financial problems and by the loss of many of their friends in daycare.

And many fear that kids will be placed in dangerous situations as their parents’ desperation increases. Even families who qualify for aid often don’t bother applying since the waiting list is so long, being forced instead to put their children in questionable situations while they work to pay the rent and put food on the table. One woman, was instance, was leaving her four-year-old daughter in her car while she worked at a shoe store, checking on her every hour.

As the executive director of Child Care Solutions, a New York referral agency put it, "We are driving people into an unregulated system."

Photo: AP

Is Cutting Your Sitter's Pay the Best Way to Save Money?

Maybe the Waitresses Reminded Him of Mom?

Adrienne Martini — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:30:00 GMT

When you are a lost 5-year old boy, do you go to:

a) The Circus

b) A Construction Site

c) The Lego Store

d) A Place Known for Its Wings and Breasts?

If you answered D, congrats! You're our big weener this week!

A Denton, TX, kid wandered out of his day care center, crossed a busy road to buy sodas and snacks, then crossed back to go to the Hooters a half-mile away. At 5 p.m. On a Tuesday afternoon. At the start of rush hour.

The Hooters staff occupied the kid with crayons and games in the back room until the police showed up. No word yet on if the kid has begun puberty early.

Day Care Kids Don't See the Sun

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:01:00 GMT

Cincinnati kids who are in day care, which is half of kids ages 3-6, face obstacles when it comes to playing outside. It's not because of the area's dicey weather or a perceived lack of green space. The barriers that were cited by child care workers in the study are a bit less intuitive.

One big problem is flip-flops. Kids who show up wearing them don't get to play outside and may be responsible for keeping the whole class indoors.

Other big issues include parents who intentionally don't send coats, teachers who don't want to bundle up all of the students and kids who eat playground woodchips. Also problematic are parental demands that pre-schools focus on academics more than outdoor exercise.

To me, kids and the outdoors go together like peas and carrots, especially when the knee-biters are in big bunches. Given how nature-hike-happy my youngest's childcare center is, I find it surprising how many kids don't go outside on any given day. Am I alone in this?

Want to Get In Shape? Work at a Day Care.

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:30:00 GMT

CNN just published a helpful list of ways to get in shape at work. Their advice? Pick careers that require strenuous activity.

Well, duh. If you are a bike messenger, it's fairly safe to assume that you are in decent shape. Ditto construction workers and landscapers. CNN has been extra helpful and included salary ranges as well. What caught my attention, however, was number 3 on their list: childcare workers.

Which makes a certain amount of sense. There is lots of bending, lifting, toting and chasing involved with childcare. Two things strike me, though.

1) If this is true, why aren't all moms buff like Heidi Klum

and

2) Why do we live in a world where bike messengers make more than nannies?

Photo credit: extension.unh.edu

Strollerderby : day care

Where Every Day Is Take Your Child to Work Day

Baby Dies After Being Left In Day Care Van

Dad Accused of Selling Daughter For Beer and Meat

Family Awarded Millions For Circumcision Mistake

Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Day Care Enrollments Plummet as Families Struggle to Pay the Bills

Maybe the Waitresses Reminded Him of Mom?

Day Care Kids Don't See the Sun

Want to Get In Shape? Work at a Day Care.